Radiology systems are known in which a visible image is provided in response to the selective absorption of x-rays transmitted through a body from an x-ray source. In order to enhance the visible image or to derive information therefrom which is not readily perceived by viewing of the image, systems have been developed for storing data derived from one or more visible images and for processing the stored data to provide an enhanced display of the processed image data. In general, a visible image is provided on the screen of an image intensifier in response to received x-ray radiation, and a video camera is employed to scan the visible image and to produce a video signal which is processed to provide a display of the x-ray image, or stored for subsequent processing and display. Usually, a sequence of images is stored and processed to provide enhanced image quality and sufficient image data for comparative analysis.
The ideal system would provide a high quality displayed image for viewing and analysis in real time. Present systems do not achieve such ideal performance, since known systems which provide an image in real time or substantially real time suffer relatively poor image quality, while systems having good image quality require significant processing time in order to generate the displayed image.